When All is Said and Done

To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowlege and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. --Ecclesistes 2:26


When watching the world around me, it is easy to think that other people are better off, that they have more exciting, less stressful lives and can achieve great things without hard work. In moments of selfishness I tend to think that I am the only person around who hurts in the ways I do.

The truth is, life isn't fair, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that if life were fair, we would all be far worse off than we even think we are now. Although there are countless hundreds of things that I don't understand about God's world, it brings me peace to hold onto the things that I do know to be true. I know the Bible is true, and that is why I find encouragement in this verse.

When all is said and done, God chooses to impart His brand of justice on the world. To those who are faithful and please Him, this verse says that He gives wisdom, knowledge, and dare I say it...happiness! Not only that, but there will come a time when we no longer have to labor without gratification. In fact, sinners will be given the task of gathering up and storing wealth in order to hand it over to us.

As is usually the case when reading a single Bible verse, I don't believe that this one should be taken literally. Rather, I believe that it is meant to provide us with a hope that there is benefit to be had by living a life serving the Lord. That may not be a simple answer to finding a meaningful life, but it certainly is one key to avoiding a meaningless one.